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July 20, 2015


Hi {!firstname_fix}

It has been raining so much that my front yard has turned into a vibrant midwest prairie with two foot tall grass. I have thrown several packets of wildflower seed into the middle so we shall see what happens in august. The fun thing is that it is marching across the yard so I am hoping by fall the yard will be seeded and filled in. I, of course, will have to take an extension class on Prairie management, LOL. Ronan is convinced that there will be prairie dogs in the grass.

As I am writing this the peacock flock that lives in the neighborhood is strolling by the fence. There is an assortment of babies in the flock - and several adult females. When Ronan goes to the fence and barks I AM A BIRD DOG! the babies freak out and fly to the nearest tree and the mothers just turn and look at him and say, *good grief, dog, get a grip.* I feel settled to be home. I feel settled to be home. I had banged my shin just before my vacation so have been hobbling around for 2 weeks. There is an indent in my leg so I had the thought that it might have a break and it would be good to get it checked. Went to urgent care and actually had a very nice interaction with them. The nurse said, *Do you have a guesstimate of your weight* which made me laugh and not even lie. No break, just will have a sore shin for a number of weeks.


This class will begin Wednesday, July 22, 2015. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:



Using Radiant Resources (1 week) - is a free orientation for those of you who are brand new and would like to find your way around all the things we offer in the community. One of our mentors will show you the ropes. Watch for the welcoming email with a link to join the Yahoo list we use as our classroom.


This class will begin Wednesday, July 29, 2015. Please click on the name of the class and it will take you to the registration page:



Clearing All That Clutter (2 weeks) - A one week, FOCUSED, quick and dirty support to getting your house, your yard, your closets, your life, your soul all cleaned up. This will be a funny, playful way to look at the scary corners filled with 15 spice jars, cosmetics pots of face cream, tools or old sheets that you might need someday. This is an opportunity to face your stuff and be supported in letting it go.


A number of you have asked me how the classes work. Check the class list page for more information on this. And please go read the questions and answers before you write to me. If you have trouble getting through the process, write the tech forum.

Be sure to visit our Radiant Recovery website and Community Forum regularly.

Warmly,
Kathleen


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**Quote From Kathleen **


When you eat according to your food plan, you will have a solid sense of self-esteem that comes from biochemical balance, clarity and well-being.

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**Testimonial of the Week **


I'm actually glad to be sugar sensitive too - it feels like there's a whole different dimension to life that people who are not sugar sensitive don't experience.

Allison

Spot on, I think, Allison. I am the one who has a bit of magic in my life. I am sure I experience things more brightly.

I am forever grateful to have had the opportunity to learn about my biochemistry, that's what helped me understand the magic piece and help it stay with me.

Mosaic


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**Interesting Bits of Science **


This was an interesting little bit of information that caught my eye. The article is called "The effect of cinnamon on menstrual bleeding and systemic symptoms with primary dysmenorrhea."

The study compared the effect of cinnamon to ibuprofen and found that it was as effective. The researchers did not note the type of cinnamon, but I have done enough reading about the differences in intestinal upset of different types to suggest using Ceylon rather than the standard one. The dosage they were using is 420 mg which is about 1/4 teaspoon. It is an intriguing little clip.

I got this from greenmed info but go ahead and read the original cite.


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** Radiant Recovery® Store **


The Radiant Recovery Cookbook - has lots of information beyond the recipes. It is a great tool for people starting out. It has recipes for every level of cook. If you are wanting to learn new ways of cooking in the *program*, this is an ideal way to start. Or if you are a skilled cook, you will be pleased with the variety and taste of the recipes.

Please send questions and suggestions. I love hearing from you and truly want to help you do your program better.


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**Radiant Kitchen **


I am a bit of a throw it together kinda cook, so this is a collaboration for an actual recipe. :) Here are the ingredients for replicating traditional New England style baked beans.

  • 2 cans of pinto beans, with the juice
  • A few slices of bacon, cut into small pieces
  • 1/4 cup apple butter
  • 1 TBS grainy brown mustard or to taste
  • 1/2 of an onion


And from Kathleen:

Here is what I did.

I put 2 cans of pinto beans (salt free) in the crock pot. I sauteed the bacon and one half of a vadalia onion in some olive oil. I mixed the apple butter into the beans and added the mustard. I probably used 1 tbs. I added the bacon and onion to the beans when they were not quite crisp. I cooked it for about 4 hours in the crock pot. And it was incredibly good.

For great program-friendly recipes, check out our Cookbook in the store and visit our online Radiant Recipes site.

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**Radiant YLD **


Last week I was doing the YLD section from Maine and used an earlier description It had an error about membership. We no longer offer the lifetime membership so just wanted to make sure we post a correction.

YLD continues to be an incredible source of helpful information. Last week I stumbled onto a TV show called EXTREME WEIGHT LOSS which makes fat people commit to a goal of 90 pounds lost in 90 days. I found the show horrifying and yet a manifestation of our cultural bias about obesity. I would call it abusive and denigrating in the name of *health* - I consider YLD the antidote. If you are overweight and want to change that, this is the place to remake your body with compassion, skill and time. Of course it won’t be ninety pounds in ninety days, thank god.

If you would like to join us in YLD, come find us here


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**Radiant Living **


Same thing happened with Radiant Life about the membership being described as *lifetime* - that was an error.

But if you are steady on your steps and want to talk about life stuff, this is the place. The chats are awesome!

If you would like to join us in Radiant Living, come find us here


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**Take Some Time With Your Program **
Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D.



Let your program settle in some. Now, think about where you are in the process. Have you been rigorous, detailed and persistent? Have you dallied, played or poked with the steps? Are you weighing yourself all the time? Are you being attentive to how you feel? Have you kept a journal? As you go through this process, notice how you criticize or judge yourself. Do you ascribe "good" to rigor and "bad" to dabbling? Listen to your inner judge carefully and discover if she or he is an ally or a saboteur.

Work with the inner voices. They are crucial to your long-term success. This process may not work the way you might expect. Sometimes diligence is less useful than dalliance. For many, many years you have demanded that you be self-disciplined. You have pushed yourself and felt guilty when you couldn't do what you demanded of yourself. Perhaps there is a different way of doing this work. Perhaps we can change your relationship to your body and your way of making change.

When I first started doing my own plan, I thought that "getting" the program meant doing it fully, being diligent, following the instructions and not "poking around." I still held the belief that being disciplined and focused were the only ways to go. Now, I am not so sure that these are the criteria for succeeding with the program.

Now, I am convinced that something else is operating, something a little more subtle and unexpected. I believe that showing up and being in relationship to your body will help you more than being tough on yourself. Let me outline how I got to thinking this way.

I used to lead a ten-week guided imagery series called Finding Healing From Within. Each week, we would do a guided meditation. After the meditation, the participants would draw what they experienced and the group would share their feelings. Sometimes a group member would sleep through every single meditation and "make up" a drawing because they had no memory of anything in the meditation. This made me really uncomfortable. Was I failing these people? Were they failing the group? Were they in denial? How could they sleep through my wonderful imagery?

At the end of ten weeks, we reviewed the progress of everyone in the group. How had they changed? How did they feel? Surprisingly, time and time again, the "sleepers" would have as remarkable a change as the "doers." Not once, not twice, but every single time. Ten weeks of sleeping through and they would report a profound sense of inner healing. They didn't "work it." They slept through the meditations on a conscious level. But they were there. They showed up and they drew the pictures and they talked about their process.

This experience taught me something. The act of showing up creates change. It creates powerful change even if on the outside it may not seem so. Making a commitment to healing starts a process - a chain of events that is much deeper than we may think. When you say, "I will get better," when you begin to hold the idea of "Whatever it takes," something starts to shift.

Given this, I looked again at the effect dalliance and diligence might have on the 7 steps of healing sugar sensitivity. I started looking at my own process of doing the steps. What was happening when I was playing around? Could those times be like the sleeping times in my guided imagery class? Could change be happening in spite of what seemed to be inattention? I looked in my journal. I discovered something astounding. When I was there attending to the steps, listening to my body, writing in my journal, even if I wasn't doing it perfectly, change was happening. I was making progress even when I was being kinda sloppy.

Think of the sleepers. The sleepers were there in the room with the group. Every week. They woke up, colored with the group, and talked about sleeping. So when I showed up and kept the journal and wrote about sleeping through my food plan, I was still engaged with my body and working the steps. I was talking with myself about what was happening. I was not criticizing myself for food sleeping, I was simply watching. And I kept coming back to the journal. I kept coming back to my body and my healing.

The nature of the sugar-sensitive person is to give up when things get difficult. Like the C57 mice, you crouch in the corner and think you can't stick to your plan. Your biochemistry supports learned helplessness. You feel inadequate, overwhelmed and unable to follow through the way you hoped. A thousand failed diets from the past reinforced these feelings. As soon as you "sleep," you say "Yah, see you did it again!" So you run away from the program, run away from yourself.

This time it will be different, because knowing your are sugar sensitive lets you finally, finally understand the nature of who you are. Knowing you are sugar sensitive lets you shift the perspective from worrying about a thousand "failed" diets to being open to a solution. Think of that. You are tenacious. You keep going, you search and continue. You may be impulsive and impatient, but you can be and are committed to finding a solution. This program helps you use your tenacity in a new way. Because you now finally understand why other diets haven't worked, you can start to make choices. You can change the voices that say, "I know this won't really work" into "hmmmm, let's sort this out." "Why am I bored?" "Why don't I like the journal?" "Why do I sabotage my efforts?" These questions become a part of our healing. They are not the old tapes of inadequacy. They may be the same questions, but they are asked from a different perspective.

Say to yourself, "I will do whatever it takes to heal this. I will give it time, money, energy, whatever it takes. Taking care of my food will be at the TOP of my list. Not after my job, or after my family or maybe when I get to it. But every day." You have made these affirmations a thousand times. But generally, you make them in your head. You "think" about your affirmations. But mostly you do not actually put the affirmations into practice. What would it mean, really mean, to "do whatever it takes?"


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Until next time!
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mosaic contributes to the Notes from the Forum column.


©2015 Kathleen DesMaisons. All rights reserved. You are free to use or transmit this article to your ezine or website as long as you leave the content unaltered, use this attribution: "By Kathleen DesMaisons, Ph.D. of Radiant Recovery®", and notify kathleen@radiantrecovery.com of the location. Please visit the Radiant Recovery® website at http://www.radiantrecovery.com for additional resources on sugar sensitivity and healing addiction.

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